‘Shark Catcher from Barracuda,’ a voice crackled in Jinko’s headphones, ‘are you receiving? Over.’ It was Brian Cisco, the GRRR assault team’s radio operator.
‘This is Shark Catcher,’ Jinko responded. ‘Go ahead, Barracuda. Over.’
‘I have Stingray for you.’ There was a pause before Jinko heard Charlie Grover’s voice. ‘Shark Catcher, this is Stingray. Is there an entrance to the Cleopatra’s bridge apart from the main one that passes the captain’s cabin? Over.’
‘Wait one, Stingray.’ Jinko turned to consult Captain Valenti. ‘Is there a route to the bridge other than the entrance that goes by the captain’s cabin?’
‘There is an emergency exit from the bridge on all the ships of the Kaiser Line,’ Valenti replied, his eyes sparkling at the thought that he could contribute. ‘There is a trapdoor in the floor of the bridge on the port side. It opens to a ladder that goes down to Deck 9.’
Jinko transmitted this information to Charlie, adding the precise details of how to access this entrance from Deck 9 as Valenti passed them on to him.
On the Cleopatra, there was a dull explosion. A grenade Duke Hazard taped to the outer door to the bridge, the one with the keypad lock on it, had detonated.
‘They are coming!’ Zapata exclaimed.
Behind him, Pedro was biting his fingernails. His mother stood close by, white-faced. Neither carried weapons. Not far away were two more armed hijackers. All were focused on the Deck 10 door on the starboard side of the bridge, which stood closed, its window shattered after Ricardo had stormed the bridge a few days before. Zapata and his two Cuban comrades had their AKMs levelled, ready to fire.
‘Are you going to shoot the first person who walks through the door?’ Pedro queried. ‘What is the point of that?’
‘The point is, brat,’ Zapata returned agitatedly, ‘we shoot them before they shoot us.’
‘I wish we had Volcán’s RPG,’ said another hijacker. ‘That would fix them!’
‘This has not turned out as I had expected,’ Consuela said, shaking her head. ‘Where did these soldiers come from?’
‘Who knows?’ Zapata returned. ‘All I know is that the chief ordered us to keep them occupied until the bombs go off.’ Having once been a corporal in the Cuban army, he knew how to take orders. ‘As soon as the bombs blow, we can steal a lifeboat in all the confusion and get the hell out of here. Just keep calm, and we will get off this ship and enjoy our treasure.’
‘What has happened to the men Ricardo sent to help Chuppa?’ Pedro persisted.
‘How should I know?’ To find out, Zapata radioed Chuppa, but there was no reply.
‘Where is Ricardo?’ Consuela demanded. ‘Why isn’t he here? And Ana-Maria and Volcán?’
‘The chief and the others had things to do,’ Zapata replied. ‘Forget them. We just worry about our own skins.’
Out of the blue came the voice of Duke Hazard, calling from beyond the door. ‘You people in there, on the bridge. This is GRRR. We have taken your comrades prisoner. You guys are on your own. Throw out your weapons, then come out with your hands above your heads.’
‘Go to hell, Yankee!’ Zapata yelled.
He let off a burst of automatic rifle fire. It left the woodwork pitted with holes.
‘You don’t want us to have to come in there and get you, buddy,’ warned Hazard, who was sheltering in the corridor outside the door.
‘Just try it!’ Zapata bellowed.
Another burst spewed in the direction of Hazard’s voice. This time, Zapata’s rounds shattered the door. It fell in pieces to the floor. Then a stun grenade came flying in through the open doorway. Then another and another, tossed by Hazard and Cisco. They detonated with blinding flashes and successive bangs that sounded like a dozen machineguns going off. Consuela dropped to her knees, holding her ears. Pedro was covering his eyes and sobbing like a baby. Dazed but defiant, Zapata and his two companions fired blindly out through the open doorway.
Then, to their astonishment, Zapata and the two other gunmen were tackled from behind. In quick succession, Charlie, Baz and McHenry had come up through the concealed emergency exit trapdoor behind the hijackers and launched themselves at the trio of armed men, knocking them to the floor.
‘Hazard, we’re in!’ Charlie yelled as he grappled with Zapata.
This was the signal for Hazard and Cisco to burst in through the main doorway. As Zapata continued to struggle with Charlie, Hazard swung his M4 like a bat, clubbing the Cuban senseless. Seeing Zapata go limp, his two offsiders promptly gave up.
‘We surrender! We surrender!’ they cried, dropping their weapons.
Within seconds it was all over. Neither Consuela nor her son offered any resistance. Instead, Pedro clung to his mother.
The personal radios of the GRRR men crackled with the voice of Jean-Claude Lyon. ‘Barracuda Team Two on Deck 4,’ he reported, after he, Casper, Willy and Toushi had scaled lines from the submersible to the Boat Deck.
‘Hazard,’ Charlie called. ‘Have Team Two send Willy to 3034 to tend the wounded hostile. The rest of Team Two is to sweep all decks. We’ve accounted for eleven hostiles, but there may be more aboard. And check where Ben’s team is at on Deck 2.’
‘Copy that.’ Via his personal radio, Hazard passed on the instruction to Jean-Claude, then called Ben.
‘Two IEDs neutralised so far,’ Ben reported. ‘Proceeding to deal with a third.’
Two hours later, the ship had been searched from top to bottom. No more hijackers were found, but GRRR located abandoned weapons in the captain’s cabin: a Makarov, an AKM, an AK-47 and an RPG.
Captain Gustarv’s voice sounded over the ship’s PA system. ‘This is Captain Gustarv speaking to you once again from the bridge. I am pleased to inform you, my dear passengers, that the officers and crew of the Cleopatra are once more in command of the ship, thanks to the efficient actions of international Special Forces. The hijackers are now in custody. Very shortly, we will weigh anchor and set sail for Fort Lauderdale at full speed. The normal food, beverage and entertainment programs will be resumed as soon as our rescuers give us approval to do so. I regret that personal items stolen from you have not been recovered at this point. I will talk to you again when we are closer to Fort Lauderdale. In the meantime, I want to thank you for the calm way you all handled yourselves during the crisis. Good evening.’
Cheers rang out from cabins throughout the ship.
Setting down his microphone, Gustarv turned to Charlie and the other GRRR members on the bridge.
‘Congratulations, Captain,’ Charlie said. ‘You handled that well.’
‘I’m just grateful that no passengers or crew were injured,’ said a weary Gustarv. ‘Do you think you have found all the hijackers?’
‘We hope so, sir,’ Charlie said. ‘But we suspect they had someone working with them aboard, so we’re keeping a close eye on all passengers and crew.’
‘Looks like their leader and two of his lieutenants, one of them a female, got away on the motor cruiser that was moored alongside,’ Duke Hazard said. ‘Passengers we’ve spoken to report seeing three people answering their descriptions boarding the cruiser just before we launched our assault.’
‘And where is that motor cruiser now?’ Gustarv queried.
‘They fled into Cuban waters, where we can’t chase them,’ Charlie advised. ‘The UN is asking the Cuban Government to intercept them, but we’re not holding out much hope that the authorities will cooperate.’
Captain Gustarv’s eyes dropped to Caesar, who was sitting placidly at Ben’s side. ‘To think you were able to bring your dog aboard, Mr Fulton, and that you are its handler.’
‘We’d appreciate it if you make no mention of that, sir,’ Ben said. ‘Our work can only be successful if it remains top secret.’
‘Hush-hush,’ Charlie echoed. ‘GRRR was never here, Captain.’
Captain Gustarv nodded. ‘Of course. You know, I have a labrador at home. A lovely dog called Mandy, but I
never knew that labradors were so smart.’
‘They reckon that labs are only the seventh most intelligent dog,’ Baz remarked. ‘Well, I reckon Caesar’s smarter than a lot of humans. Poodles are supposed to be more intelligent than labs. Poodles! Can you imagine them looking for bombs?’
‘What is the most intelligent breed?’ Gustarv asked.
‘Border collies,’ Ben replied.
‘And you don’t see them sniffing out IEDs, either,’ Baz said. ‘They’re too intelligent. They’d look at a tunnel and say, “You want me to go in there? You gotta be kidding!”’
Before a single passenger of the Cleopatra was allowed to disembark at Fort Lauderdale, a team from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came aboard. The FBI agents took the handcuffed prisoners off the ship. Only then did the disembarking of passengers commence. Meanwhile, because he still had work to do, Ben arranged for Nan, Josh and Maddie to have morning tea with Environmental Officer Gabriella Ponti in the Nile Dining Room, where they could order whatever they liked.
GRRR team members had spread out, weapons at the ready, along the glassed-in gangway leading from ship to shore, just in case any hijackers had evaded capture and now attempted to slip off the ship. Ben and Caesar were standing there, too, carefully watching passengers come filing by after passing through the security screening section on Deck 4. Several passengers wanted to take pictures of Ben and Caesar, but Ben had to ask them not to, for security reasons. Then Ben greeted two familiar faces coming off the ship – their dinner companions from Table 122, Oscar and Lindy Lindoni.
‘The hijack wasn’t too traumatic for you, Mr Lindoni?’ Ben said with a smile.
‘Heck no, son,’ Lindoni replied. ‘I went through much worse, when I was in the military.’
Out of the corner of his eye, Ben noticed that Caesar had slowly eased his backside to the deck and was staring intently at Oscar Lindoni. Almost disbelieving, but trusting Caesar implicitly, Ben acted immediately. He clicked his fingers to attract the attention of Baz, who was standing nearby. ‘Mr Lindoni,’ Ben said in a more serious tone, ‘I’m going to have to ask you to go with the trooper here to answer some questions.’
Lindoni looked at him in astonishment. ‘What? You’re not saying you suspect me? Are you nuts?’
‘No, sir,’ Ben responded coolly. ‘Caesar has identified explosive chemical residue on your person. What you see there – his intense interest in you – is his signature. He is telling me that you’ve recently been in touch with explosives, and you’re going to have to explain that. We’ve suspected all along that the hijackers had someone on the ship helping them – probably to the extent of being involved with their explosive charges.’
Baz, holding his Minimi with one hand, took Oscar firmly by the arm, as Charlie and Duke Hazard both closed in.
‘This is ridiculous!’ Oscar protested. ‘Of course I deal with explosives! That’s what I do in the salvage and demolition business.’
‘In the last twenty-four hours?’ Ben queried.
‘What?’
‘Caesar will only find those traces if you’ve been in contact with explosives in the past twenty-four hours. Anything older than that will be undetectable. And for the past twenty-four hours, the only place you’ve been is right here, on the Cleopatra!’
‘I’m going to call my congressman!’ Lindoni protested.
‘A lawyer would be more help to you now, mate,’ Baz said. ‘I need you to come with me.’
Lindoni, still keeping up protests of innocence, was led away to be questioned by the FBI. A clearly fearful Lindy Lindoni followed, escorted by Duke Hazard.
Ben bent down and gave Caesar a vigorous pat. ‘Good job, mate! Who would have suspected that bloke? It’ll be interesting to see what he reveals under questioning.’
Ben and Caesar resumed their unrelenting scrutiny of disembarking passengers. That process continued for another forty minutes, with passengers queuing at the security scanners and handing their Ocean Passes to ship security staff. With a donk, the photo of each passenger taken when they first boarded came up on the screen in front of the security men as the passenger waited for approval to proceed. Ben was watching as a bulky man with a shaved head handed over his Ocean Pass. Donk!
‘Thank you, Mr Santana,’ said the security guard.
The name Santana registered with Ben. And then he noticed that the man’s shirt was too big for him. The sleeves were unbuttoned and flapping loose, revealing heavily tattooed arms. As the big man approached, Ben put out an arm and stopped him. ‘Mr Santana?’
‘Yes?’
‘Remember me?’ Ben said.
‘Should I?’
‘We had dinner together at the captain’s table one night.’
‘We did? Sorry, I do not remember.’
The man went to walk on, but Ben stepped determinedly in front of him. Caesar adopted his ‘signature’ pose, sitting down and staring obsessively up at the man. Tim McHenry and Chris Banner spotted Caesar’s behaviour and quickly walked over to support Ben, with their weapons at the ready.
‘I remember that the Mr Manuel Santana I dined with didn’t have tattoos on his arms,’ Ben said.
‘This is ridiculous!’ the man spat.
‘Roll up your right sleeve, sir, please.’
‘I will not!’ the man protested. ‘Get out of my way.’
‘Let me roll up your sleeve for you,’ Banner said. He gripped the big man’s right arm and pushed up the shirtsleeve to reveal a large tattoo among other smaller ones. The large tattoo was of a dagger through a heart – the same tattoo that Ben had seen on the arm of a hijacker in the corridor outside his cabin. The man was Volcán.
‘You must go with these gentlemen, sir,’ Ben instructed.
As Volcán was led away, Ben noticed a couple at the security screeners acting suspiciously. The woman had long blonde hair, while the man had curly dark hair. As soon as they saw Ben eying them, they attempted to turn back.
‘Stop those two!’ Ben shouted.
The couple was quickly seized. Their hair turned out to be wigs, which were promptly plucked from their heads by Angus and Casper. For, this was Ricardo Ramos and his girlfriend, Ana-Maria, posing as Juan and Connie Santana. Thanks to Caesar, and Ben’s sharp eye, the three leaders of the hijacking had been caught, just as they were about to escape the ship.
An hour later, Shark Catcher advised GRRR that Cuban authorities had informed the UN that their navy had apprehended the Yankee Blade, arresting the real Santanas as well as Carter and Leroy.
A maxi-taxi was taking the Fultons and Caesar from Fort Lauderdale to Miami International Airport. From there, Nan, Josh and Maddie would return to Australia. Ben had been explaining the ins and outs of the plan to outwit Ricardo Ramos and his gang. ‘It all hinged on the fake deposit of two hundred million dollars going into the hijackers’ bank account. That kept them on the hook while GRRR was moving into position. And the bad guys thought they were outsmarting everyone by transferring the money to another bank in Switzerland.’
‘That one bamboozled me a bit, Ben, dear,’ Nan said. ‘How could the gang transfer money to a Swiss bank account when the money never existed in the first place?’
‘Apparently, when the people at Caribbean Worldwide Bank saw the gang attempt to transfer the money, they acted fast and made a pretend transfer out, just as they’d made a pretend transfer in.’
Maddie was shaking her head. ‘I’m confused.’
‘It was all make-believe, Maddie,’ Josh said. ‘All computer magic.’
Maddie shrugged. ‘It all sounds dericulous to me.’
Ben smiled. ‘What was really ridiculous, Maddie, was that the baddies didn’t think to check the balance in their Swiss bank account. They would have seen that the two hundred million dollars was never received, that the transfer never happened.’
‘How are we going to get our money and credit cards and phones back, Dad?’ Josh asked. ‘And all the stuff the bad guys stole from everyone on th
e ship?’
‘We’ll probably never see any of it again. I’ve already cancelled the credit cards. But our travel insurance will cover everything, Josh.’
‘What I can’t understand,’ Maddie said, ‘is how that nice Mr Lindoni was the boss of the hijokers.’
‘Hijackers, dear,’ Nan corrected her.
‘It’s simple, Maddie,’ said Josh. ‘The FBI says that, years ago, Ricardo Ramos, the hijackers’ leader, worked for Oscar Lindoni’s salvage business in Miami. Lindoni’s business was losing money, so he got greedy and arranged for Ricardo and the others to bust out of prison to hijack the Cleopatra for the two-hundred-million-dollar ransom.’
‘Lindoni was their contact aboard ship,’ Ben added. ‘The hijackers called him Cousin Antony. One of the hijackers called Volcán has since identified Lindoni as Cousin Antony. As Caesar spotted, Lindoni even helped them plant their IEDs.’
‘He was the chief baddie, Maddie,’ Josh explained. ‘And he tried to trick us.’
‘As the boss of the hijack,’ Nan said, ‘he would have got the lion’s share of the ransom, if it’d really been paid. Tens of millions of dollars.’
‘He paid for the bad guys’ guns and everything,’ Josh added.
‘But he looked such a nice old man,’ Maddie said sadly.
‘You can’t always judge people by their appearance, princess,’ Ben said, ruffling the ear of Caesar beside him. ‘But nobody can fool Caesar.’
Seeming to know exactly what Ben had said, Caesar let out a little snort of agreement.
‘Caesar’s the cleverest EDD in the world,’ said Josh. ‘The bad guys never stood a chance once he was on the case. He’s epic!’
‘Caesar our super-duper superdog,’ Maddie said proudly, snuggling up to the labrador.
Once they arrived at the airport and the bags were unloaded, Ben embraced Nan, Josh and Maddie, and they all cuddled Caesar.
‘Sorry you can’t come with us, Caesar,’ Maddie said. ‘But Daddy says you have got to go to that place you don’t like, that starts with Q.’
Operation Black Shark Page 18